Into the World!
Why is internationalisation important? The answer to this question is quite simple: that the global challenges we face today require global solutions, and that demands communication and cooperation across borders and across cultures.
Today’s students are recognised as having a big role to play in addressing many of the global challenges we face. Internationalisation of higher education is supporting students and staff to develop the skills and knowledge to communicate and cooperate effectively in multinational, multicultural settings. Exactly the multicultural settings that social workers, social educators and child welfare social workers are employed in.
What kind of skills and knowledge?
Intercultural communicative competence
“This is an understanding not only of culture and language but also the readiness to suspend disbelief and judgment about the other culture and the willingness to reflect on one’s own culture and question the values and presuppositions in one’s own cultural practices. Through comparing and contrasting, learners can become more deeply aware of their own, often unconscious, belief system and ideological perspectives. They understand how aspects of their own culture are perceived from the other’s cultural perspective and how this link between the two cultures is fundamental to interaction.” (Chun 2011).
